Sooners Remain Among Top 16 Seeds in ESPN Bracketology
Joe Lunardi’s newest ESPN.com ‘Bracketology’ maintained Oklahoma as one of the Top 16 seeds in the field, despite the Sooners’ loss to Texas Tech on Monday night.
Lunardi’s latest 68-team bracket, released on Feb. 2, has seven Big 12 teams in the field, second only to the Big Ten’s nine teams. The Big 12’s seven teams were all higher seeds in their respective first-round matchups.
Oklahoma saw its streak of victories against AP Top 25 teams end on Monday night in a close loss to Texas Tech, but Lunardi moved the Sooners up two spots from a No. 6 to a No. 4 seed. Lunardi’s last update was before the Big 12-SEC Challenge, where Oklahoma beat then-No. 9 Alabama, wrapping up a January in which the Sooners became the third team in the AP Poll era to beat four AP Top 10 teams in the same calendar month in the regular season.
Lunardi has the Sooners in Region 4 facing UC-Irvine in the first round.
READ MORE: Oklahoma crashes Top 10 in latest AP Top 25
READ MORE: Oklahoma State enters USA Today Top 25 for first time this season
Texas Tech nudged up a seed after its win over the Sooners, moving up the No. 4 seed line in Region 3, where the Red Raiders would face Liberty in the first round.
Tonight’s game between Baylor and Texas pits two of the Top 8 seeds in Lunardi’s bracket. Baylor remained a No. 1 seed in Region 2, with the Bears projected to face either Montana State or Prairie View A&M in the first round. Texas, meanwhile, remained a No. 2 seed in Region 1 and would face Northeastern.
Kansas and West Virginia both moved down a seed line from Lunardi’s last bracket, and both are a No. 5 seed. Kansas is in Region 1, where it would face Winthrop in the first round. West Virginia, meanwhile, is in Region 2 and would face Toledo.
Oklahoma State rounded out the Big 12 teams in Lunardi’s most recent bracket, and the Cowboys look firmly entrenched at this point. Lunardi maintained the Cowboys as a No. 7 seed in Region 3, where they would face Oregon in the first round.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard. Send him a tweet with your question to be included in this week’s Big 12 Basketball Mailbag, which appears each Friday during the conference season.
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